Monday, April 13, 2015

Gospel devotion: A Narrow Door - Luke 13:24

Luke 13:24 Jesus
answered: “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because
many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.”

Over the weekend, a new survey was
released which suggests that the United Kingdom is among the least religious
countries in the world. The survey was conducted by the Win/Gallup organization
and a news report about the results can be read here: ITV
News.

The findings of this survey do not
surprise me at all. Over the past twenty years, I have seen Christianity
decline in Britain, which I think has occurred due to an increase in both humanist
secularism in society and liberal progressiveness in the mainline churches. Church
attendance is waning and religious connections are diminishing. Those who are
still left in the Church are either disillusioned with the direction that their
progressive leaders are following, or they are actually deluded into thinking that
such a path will make the Church vitally relevant - it doesn't, because not
having much to believe in is very quickly transformed into believing nothing at
all.

Lots of people don’t really read the
Gospels any more. They carry around in their hearts and minds an artificial
Jesus of their own making who loves everyone, indulges everything, and accepts
anything. Nothing could be further from the Gospel Truth. Jesus Himself talked
about a narrow door to salvation, not a broad gate or an open field. Progressives
would have us believe that the wider that the Church makes the gate, the more
people we can gather together for the Kingdom of God. If that were the case,
then why on Earth did Jesus ever talk about a narrow door?

The Truth of the matter about
salvation, which should be defined as the forgiveness of our sins and our
everlasting re-connection to God, is this: it is only experienced through a
narrow door, controlled by God and confined to Christ’s teachings; it is not a
broad opening, constructed by our beliefs and ever-widened by our opinions. The
sadness about this stark Gospel reality is this: more people in the present
generation of Brits will never find that door because of the failures of their
Christian leaders. The concern that I personally have is that the United States
is heading down the same erroneous way. The only happiness, however, is this:
the door to salvation is still open – we just have to make the right commitment
to Jesus in order to walk through it.

Questions for
reflection: How committed am I to Jesus?
Am I willing to walk through His narrow door to find salvation? If not, then
how can I be saved?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to seek a real
understanding of Who You are and what You actually taught. Keep us from shaping
You into our own image, and enable us to be willing to be shaped, led, and
saved by You. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John
Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you
would like to ask questions or make comments about today’s message, please send
him an email to Traqair@aol.com.

Today’s
image is one of John’s latest Communion drawings called “This Is.” If you would
like to view a larger image, please click on this link: This Is.